Disney Live! In Doha

Mickey Mouse and all his friends are coming to Qatar this month to present us with an extra special musical mash-up in Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival. The director and choreographer Fred Tallaksen tells us what we can expect.

Award-winning performer and choreographer Fred Tallaksen has worked in film, television, stage, music videos and commercials with big names such as Madonna, La Toya Jackson, Kelly Osborne and James Blunt. And now he can finally add Mickey Mouse to the list. These are his thoughts on what looks to be a promising performance in Doha.

On his background and career…‘I’m from a really small town and when I told my parents I wanted to be an artist and in show business, they thought I was out of my mind. To be able to have a career for 35 years as a choreographer and now as a director has been the biggest dream of my life.’

On the show…‘Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival is a rock concert with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and all of your favorite Disney characters. They’re going to sing and dance and rock the house.’

On the challenges of choreography…‘For me it wasn’t a challenge working with a lot of different styles of music because that’s my own personal taste. I’m the type of choreographer who choreographs to lots and lots of different styles. I feel happy going from hip hop to musical theatre, to a little more jazzy to a ballad. I love rhythm.

‘One of the challenges for the cast is that they have to play so many different parts in the show. They have to dance, they have to be able to tumble and do gymnastics, they have to be able to jump rope. There’s roller blading and drumming. There are all these things in the show, and a lot of the performers do all of them. They’re all really talented.’

On rehearsals…‘The schedule for a production like this is really intricate. For the first few weeks we rehearse in a dance studio. We have three different things happening at the same time in three different rooms: dancers will be learning choreography in one room, actors will be learning a scene in another, and then we’ll have specialty training in a third room where people are learning jump rope, roller blading, mini trampolining, gymnastics and adagio (dance to slow music). All of that happens at the same time for a couple of hours and then we switch. It keeps moving day after day after day until the cast learns all the choreography. Then we come to the theatre where we start blocking the scenes on stage [and] adding in the technical elements. This lasts for about a week or two and then we start doing dress rehearsals where we add in all the special effects, video and costumes. The entire process takes about five or six weeks.Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival is on at Qatar National Convention Centre from February 12-16. Ticket prices start from QR150 and are on sale at Virgin Megastores or www.virginmegastore.qa.

Did you know?

• It takes 8 hours to set up the production for Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival.• There are 299 costume pieces used in the show.• 100 lighting fixtures overall are hoisted overhead.• The sound system uses 20,000 watts of power. Mega-watts!• In total, 6 male performers and 9 female performers are involved in the entire show.